The House of Hades NEW
by Megaeia
Summary: Starting off with the first official chapter of The House of Hades, written by Rick Riordan, the five demigods must follow Nico to the Temple of Hades in Epirus to battle Gaea's forces, rescue their friends Percy and Annabeth, and close the Doors of Death.
1. I Hazel

A/N: My story begins with the official first chapter of The House of Hades, which was released in the eBook of The Son of Sobek on June 8. This was written by Rick Riordan. All rights go to him and his publisher. What I write continues from the end of this chapter.

* * *

I - Hazel

During the third attack, Hazel almost ate a boulder. She was peering into the fog, wondering how it could be so difficult to fly across one stupid mountain range, when the ship's alarm bells sounded.

"Hard to port!" Nico yelled from the foremast of the flying ship.

Back at the helm, Leo yanked the wheel. The Argo II veered left, its aerial oars slashing through the clouds like rows of knives.

Hazel made the mistake of looking over the rail. A dark, spherical shape hurtled toward her. She thought: Why is the moon coming at us? Then she yelped and hit the deck. The huge rock passed so close overhead, it blew her hair out of her face.

CRACK!

The foremast collapsed, sail spars, and Nico all crashing to the deck. The boulder, roughly the size of a pickup truck, tumbled into the fog like it had important business elsewhere.

"Nico!" Hazel scrambled over to him as Leo brought the ship level.

"I'm fine," Nico muttered, kicking folds of canvas off his legs.

She helped him up, and they stumbled to the bow. Hazel peeked over more carefully this time. The clouds parted just long enough to reveal the top of the mountain below them: a spearhead of black rock jutting from the mossy green slopes. Standing at the summit was a mountain god- one of the numina montanum, Jason had called them. Or ourae in Greek. Whatever you called them, they were nasty.

Like the others they had faced, this one wore a simple white tunic over skin as rough and dark as basalt. He was about twenty feet tall and extremely muscular, with a flowing white beard, scraggly hair, and a wild look in his eyes, like a crazy hermit. He bellowed something Hazel didn't understand, but it obviously wasn't welcoming. With his bare hands, he pried another chunk of rock from his mountain and began shaping it into a ball.

The scene disappeared in the fog, but when the mountain god bellowed again, other numina answered in the distance, their voices echoing through the valleys.

"Stupid rock gods!" Leo yelled from the helm. "That's the third time I've had to replace the mast! You think they grow on trees?"

Nico frowned. "Masts are from trees."

"That's not the point!" Leo snatched up one of his controls, a jury-rigged Nintendo Wii stick, and spun it in a circle. A few feet away, a trapdoor opened in the deck. A Celestial bronze cannon rose. Hazel had just enough time to cover her ears before it discharged into the sky, spraying a dozen metal spheres that trailed green fire. The spheres grew spikes in mid air, like helicopter blades, and spun away into the fog.

A moment later, a series of explosions crackled across the mountains, followed by the outraged roar of mountain gods.

"Ha!" Leo yelled.

Unfortunately, Hazel guessed, judging from their last two encounters, Leo's newest weapon had only annoyed the numina.

Another boulder whistled through the air off to their starboard side.

Nico yelled, "Get us out of here!"

Leo muttered some unflattering comments about numina, but her turned the wheel. The engines hummed. Magical rigging lashed itself tight, and the ship tacked to port. The Argo II picked up speed, retreating northwest, as they'd been doing for the past two days.

Hazel didn't relax until they were out of the mountains. The fog cleared. Below them. the morning sun illuminated the Italian countryside- rolling green hills and golden fields not too different from those in Northern California. Hazel could almost imagine she was sailing home to Camp Jupiter.

The thought weighed on her chest. Camp Jupiter had only been her home for nine months, since Nico had brought her back from the Underworld. But she missed it more than her birthplace of New Orleans, and definitely more than Alaska, where she'd died back in 1942.

She missed her bunk in the Fifth Cohort barracks. She missed dinners in the mess hall, with wind spirits whisking platters through the air and legionnaires joking about the war games. She wanted to wander the streets of New Rome, holding hands with Frank Zhang. She wanted to experience just being a regular girl for once, with an actual sweet, caring boyfriend.

Most of all, she wanted to feel safe. She was tired of being scared and worried all the time.

She stood at the quarterdeck as Nico pucked mast splinters out of his arms and Leo punched buttons on the ship's console.

"Well, that was sucktastic," Leo said. "Should I wake the others?"

Hazel was tempted to say yes, but the other crewmembers had taken the night shift and earned their rest. They were exhausted from defending the ship. Every few hours, it seems, some Roman monster had decided the Argo II looked like a tasty treat.

A few weeks ago, Hazel wouldn't have believed that anyone could sleep through a numina attack, but now she imagined her friends were still snoring away belowdecks. Whenever she got the chance to crash, she slept like a coma patient.

"They need to rest," she said. "We'll have to figure out another way on our own."

"Huh." Leo scowled at his monitor. In his tattered work shirt, and grease-splattered jeans, he looked like he'd just lost a wrestling match with a locomotive.

Ever since their friends Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus, Leo had been working almost nonstop. He'd been acting angrier and even more driven than usual.

Hazel was worried about him. But part of her was relieved by the change. Whenever Leo smiled and joked, he looked too much like Sammy, his great grandfather... Hazel's first boyfriend back in 1942.

Ugh, why did her life have to be so complicated?

"Another way," Leo muttered. "Do you see one?"

On his monitor glowed a map of Italy. The Apennine Mountains ran down the middle of the boot-shaped country. A green dot for the Argo II blinked on the western side of the range, a few hundred miles north of Rome. Their path should have been simple. They needed to get to a place called Epirus in Greece and find an old temple called the House of Hades (or Pluto, as the Romans called him; or as Hazel liked to think of him: the World's Most Absent Father).

To reach Epirus, all they had to do was go straight east- over the Apennines and across the Adriatic Sea. But it hadn't worked out that way. Each time they tried to cross the spine of Italy, the mountain gods attacked.

For the past two days they'd skirted north, hoping to find a safe pass, with no luck. The numina montanum were sons of Gaea, Hazel's least favorite goddess. That made them very determined enemies. The Argo II couldn't fly high enough to avoid their attacks; and even with all its defenses, the ship couldn't make it across the range without being smashed to pieces.

"It's our fault," Hazel said. "Nico's and mine. The numina can sense us."

She glanced at her half brother. Since they'd rescued him from the giants, he'd started to regain his strength, but he was still painfully thin. His black shirt and jeans hung off his skeletal frame. Long, dark hair framed his sunken eyes, His olive complexion had turned sickly greenish-white, like the color of tree sap.

In human years, he was barely fourteen, just a year older than Hazel; but that didn't tell the whole story. Like Hazel, Nico di Angelo was a demigod from another era. He radiated a kind of old energy- a melancholy that came from knowing he didn't belong in the modern world.

Hazel hadn't known him very long, but she understood, even shared is sadness. The children of Hades (Pluto- whichever) rarely had happy lives. And judging from what Nico had told her the night before, their biggest challenge was yet to come when they reached the House of Hades- a challenge he'd implored her to keep secret from the others.

Nico gripped the hilt of his Stygian iron sword. "Earth spirits don't like children of the Underworld. That's true. We get under their skin- literally. But I think the numina could sense this ship anyway. We're carrying the Athena Parthenos. That thing is like a magical beacon."

Hazel shivered, thinking of the massive statue that took up most of the hold. They'd sacrificed so much, saving it from the cavern under Rome; but they had no idea what to do with it. So far the only thing it seemed to be good fro was alerting more monsters to their presence.

Leo traced his finger down the map of Italy. "So crossing the mountains is out. Thing is, they go a long way in either direction."

We could go by sea," Hazel suggested. "Sail around the southern tip of Italy."

"That's a long way," Nico said. "Plus, we don't have..." His voice cracked. "You know, our sea expert, Percy."

The name hung in the air like an impending storm.

Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon... probably the demigod Hazel admired the most. He'd saved her life so many times on their quest to Alaska; but when he had needed Hazel's help in Rome, she'd failed him. She'd watched, powerless, as he and Annabeth had plunged into that pit...

Hazel took a deep breath. Percy and Annabeth were still alive. She knew that in her heart. She could still help them if she could get to the House of Hades, if she could survive the challenge Nico had warned her about...

"What about continuing north?" she asked. "There has to be a break in the mountains, or something."

Leo fiddled with the bronze Archimedes sphere that he'd installed on the console- his newest and most dangerous toy. Every time Hazel looked at the thing, her mouth went dry. She worried that Leo would turn the wrong combination on the sphere and accidentally eject them all from the deck, or blow up the ship, or turn the Argo II into a giant toaster.

Fortunately, they got lucky. The sphere grew a camera lens and projected a 3D image of the Apennine Mountains above the console.

"I dunno." Leo examined the holograph. "I don't see any good passes to the north. But I like that idea better than backtracking south. I'm done with Rome."

No one argued with that. Rome had not been a good experience.

"Whatever we do," Nico said, "we have to hurry. Every day Annabeth and Percy are in Tartarus..."

He didn't need to finish. They had to hope Percy and Annabeth could survive long enough to find the Tartarus side of the Doors of Death. Then, assuming the Argo II could reach the House of Hades, they might be able to open the doors on the mortal side, save their friends, and seal the entrance, stopping Gaea's forces from being reincarnated in the mortal world, over and over.

Yes... nothing could go wrong with that plan.

Nico scowled at the Italian countryside below them. "Maybe we should wake the others. This decision affects us all."

"No," Hazel said. "We can find a solution."

She wasn't sure why she felt so strongly about it, but since leaving Rome, the crew had started to lose its cohesion. They'd been learning to work as a team. Then bam... their two most important members fell into Tartarus. Percy had been their backbone. He'd given them confidence as they sailed across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. As for Annabeth- she'd been the de facto leader of the quest. She'd recovered the Athena Parthenos single-handedly. She was the smartest of the seven, the one with the answers.

If Hazel woke up the rest of the crew every time they had a problem, they'd just start arguing again, feeling more and more helpless.

She had to make Percy and Annabeth proud of her. She had to take the initiative. She couldn't believe her only role in this quest would be what Nico had warned her of-removing the obstacle waiting for them in the House of Hades. She pushed the thought aside.

"We need some creative thinking, she said. "Another way to cross those mountains, or a way to hide ourselves from the numina."

"Nico sighed. "If I was on my own, I could shadow travel. But they won't work for an entire ship. And honestly, I'm not sure I have the strength to even transport myself anymore."

"I could maybe rig some kind of camouflage," Leo said, "like a smokescreen to hide us in the clouds." He didn't sound very enthusiastic.

Hazel stared down at the rolling farmland, thinking about what lay beneath it- the realm of her father, lord of the Underworld. She'd only met Pluto once, and she hadn't even realized who he was. She certainly had never expected help from him- who when she was alive the first time, not during her time as a spirit in the Underworld, not since Nico had brought her back to the world of the living.

Her dad's servant Thanatos, god of death, had suggested that Pluto might be doing Hazel a favor by ignoring her. After all, she wasn't supposed to be alive. If Pluto took notice of her, he might have to return her to the land of the dead.

Which meant calling on Pluto would be a very bad idea. And yet...

Please, Dad, she found herself praying. I have to find a way to your temple in Greece- the House of Hades, If you're down there, show me what to do.

At the edge of the horizon, a flicker of movement caught her eye- something small and beige racing across the fields at incredible speed, leaving a vapor trail like a plane's.

Hazel couldn't believe it. She didn't dare hope, but it had to be... "Arion."

"What?" Nico asked.

Leo let out a happy whoop as the dust cloud got closer. "It's her horse, man! You missed that whole part. We haven't seen him since Kansas!"

Hazel laughed- the first time she'd laughed in days. It felt so good to see her old friend.

About a mile north, the small beige dot circled a hill and stopped at the summit. He was difficult to make out, but when the horse reared and whinnied, the sound carried all the way to the Argo II. Hazel had no doubt- it was Arion.

"We have to meet him," she said. "He's here to help."

"Yeah, okay." Leo scratched his head. "But, uh, we talked about not landing the ship on the ground anymore, remember? You know, with Gaea wanting to destroy us, and all."

"Just get me close, and I'll use the rope ladder." Hazel's heart was pounding. "I think Arion wants to tell me something."


	2. II Hazel - Part I

A/N: Of course, I probably won't be able to top that first chapter, since it was written by the King of Cliffhangers and Myothological Friends and Dimensions, but I'll try. Disclaimer: I wrote this, but the rights do not belong to me.

* * *

II - Hazel

Hazel dropped to the grass under the Argo II's shadow. To her left, Arion grazed on top of a nearby hill, looking majestic and at ease against the Italian landscape.

Concentrating on the ground, she knelt down and picked up a chunk of silver. With practice, it had become easier for her to find precious stones in the earth without discomfort, and when the crew needed money to buy resources, her curse granted their wish.

Arion looked up and trotted over to Hazel, hungrily snatching the silver from her outstretched hand.

"Hey, boy." She stroked his mane and back, running her fingers through his long, shining hair. Arion was her dream horse- literally. Finding him with the Amazons was more than Hazel could have ever asked for.

If Percy was here, he could tell Hazel exactly what Arion was thinking. He could hear equestrians' thoughts; it was a child of Neptune (Poseidon, whichever) thing.

But he wasn't.

Sucking in a deep breath, she asked the horse, "Arion, how can you help us?"

The horse looked at her, his eyes saying, I'm not useless, you know. But he snorted and whinnied as he threw his head back towards his back.

"You want me to ride you?" Hazel glanced up at the Argo II. "Arion, I - I can't leave the ship. It would be too dangerous, and we can't waste any time-"

He huffed and reared indignantly. If Hazel could hear what he was thinking, she guessd it would be something slong the lines of: Idiot human. After all, he had broke the speed of sound carrying Frank, Percy, and herself from Alaska to San Francisco. Time wasn't a concern.

"Oh, right. Alright then." Hesitantly, Hazel hefted herself onto Arion's back and took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," she muttered. Kicking his side, she commanded, "Arion, giddy up!"

The horse reared and began to gallop, picking up speed with every stride until all Hazel could see was a blur of green, blue, and brown. Then, as soon as Hazel's insides seemed as though they were outside, she felt wall of sharp, cold, air, and a loud CRACK! rang through her ears.

Soon, Arion slowed down, and when Hazel steadied to just partial vertigo, she found herself in a grey alley sheltered by buildings with cold, wet, and moldy stone walls covered with grapevines. The rising sun showed a street crowded with shops and restaurants still closed for the night.

But Hazel's attention was fixed on the sickly-looking faun muttering his sleep at the base of the wall. His clothes, an orange t-shirt and pants that failed to cover his hooves, were tattered as if he had ran through a forest, hiked up a mountain, and taken a swim without changing. In between bleats and snores, he would mutter and moan words "Pepsi" or "cushions," then twitch.

Against all of Hazel's instinct, she slid off Arion's back and reached down to the faun. Even if she didn't know who he was, this faun clearly needed help. Plus, he reminded her of walking through Camp Jupiter, of Don and the other helpless fauns.

But as soon as she laid a hand on him, he jumped up and whipped out a small knife, waving it around in the air wildly in front of him.

"Don't come any closer!" He shouted. "I know how to use this knife!"

"Shhhhh!" Hazel hissed. "You're going to wake up the whole street. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a demigod, from Camp Jupiter. My horse, Arion, brought me here to you."

The faun breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank the gods. That horse brought me across the Atlantic in 8 hours. He told me that he needed to bring me to demigods that I could help."

Hazel's heart fluttered. Someone must have told Arion to find this faun and bring him to them. Though she wanted to know who, Hazel had learned that it was better just to accept the help you got and ask questions later. "What's your name?"

"Grover," the faun answered, looking her right in the eyes. "'And I can tell you about Percy Jackson."

. . . . .

A/N: Readers- I know this is short (and cliff-hanging), and the rest of the chapters will be much longer. These two chapters will have (hopefully) caught your attentions. More is in store! Make sure to review, follow, and keep reading!


	3. II Hazel- Part II

A/N: Thanks to all of you have read, reviewed, favorited, and followed! Please be sure to spread the word about this story and check in as many times as possible. Perfrui, Meg.

* * *

II - Hazel (cont.)

Hazel collapsed on a beanbag in the Argo II's mess hall. She could smell the breakfast that Leo had already started cooking... But even blueberry pancakes couldn't keep her mind off of Grover, who was resting in Annabeth's room while Nico was in Percy's.

Hazel had heard about Grover from Percy. He was Percy's best friend, and a new Lord of the Wild, and he had found Percy and brought him to Camp Half-Blood when Percy was twelve. And, he had found the Greek god of nature and released him out of immortality, accompanied Percy on all of his quests, and had saved his life more times than he could count.

And... The empathy link. Percy had told her and Frank about it, once, when he was talking about their "quest" into the Sea of Monsters. He said that it was a way only he and Grover could communicate, through a vision or dream. When Grover was taken by the Cyclops Polyphemus, he had created the link and was able to see and talk to Percy as Percy was dreaming.

But there was a catch. If someone on one end of the link was in pain, there was a possibility that the other person could feel it too. Hazel shuddered just thinking about it. If something happened to Percy in Tartarus, would Grover feel it too?

No. She shut that thought out of her head. With Annabeth by his side, the two would be unstoppable; Hazel was certain of that.

"Morning," a tired voice yawned from the doorway.

Hazel jumped, out of her thoughts. She looked up and smiled. "Morning, Mr. Zhang," she said. "Sleep well?"

Frank slid into the beanbag next to her. "Same old nightmares," he grumbled. "How about you? I woke up a couple times. Heard some, um... yelling."

Hazel sighed. "Yeah. Mountain gods are right next to Gaea on my 'Least Favorite Immortals' List."

"Ditto." His face turned grim. "And, um... Is someone in... Annabeth's room? I heard... groveling."

"Oh, yeah, right." Quickly, she filled him in on the events that occurred circa 7:30 AM. After she and Arion had gotten Grover back to the ship, she could tell that the faun was in worse shape than she had thought. For a Lord of the Wild, he looked less lord-like than a homeless person. So, Nico, being a familiar face, had helped him up in one of Leo's pulleys, along with Arion, who was happily eating gold in the stables. Now, Grover was sacked out.

Hazel felt bad to be impatient, wanting him to wake up when he was so sick, but she couldn't help it. Anyone in the crew would be thinking the same thing, if they had heard what he had last said to her.

"Wow," Frank said. "You never know what you can sleep through once you get hit in the head with three tons of marble."

"Well," Hazel said. "You're awake now."

Frank smiled. "And no one else is here to interrupt anything..."

Hazel blushed. Her stomach felt full of butterflies. "You," she paused, "are absolutely right."

She started leaning towards him when a shadow fell across the doorway, and she and Frank pulled away abruptly.

Leo stood there, a sullen look on his face, while Hazel's, on the other hand, felt very hot and very red. "Hazel," he said, barely acknowledging Frank, "he's awake.

. . . . .

Frank, Nico, Leo, and Hazel huddled together in Annabeth's room. No one had been in there since Rome, and Hazel could tell that no one wanted to be there now either.

Clearing his throat, Nico started. "So, Grover, what can you tell us about Percy? Did you hear him -see him- through the link?"

The faun looked less like death now, with some color returning to his cheeks and eyes. He was propped up in bed with some pillows, and there was a bottle of nectar and some old soda cans on a tray in his lap. The shirt he had been wearing when Hazel had found him was lying next to the bed, but Hazel could see that it was one of the Camp Half-Blood ones, except covered with dirt and leaves.

When he spoke, his voice was hoarse and soft. "Something like that. All I know was, a few days ago, in the woods with some dryads, I fell asleep and had a dream of him and Annabeth, and woke up to find Arion. He told me that something terrible had happened to Annabeth and Percy, and that I was only one that could help the demigods that were trying to save them."

"What did he say?" Leo asked eagerly. " In your dream, did Percy say anything to you? Was it any kind of clue that could tell us where they are?"

Grover whimpered. "I don't know. All I know is that he was standing by the darkest river I've ever seen, and Annabeth was on the ground next to him, sleeping. It was dark, but I could singing and the sound of river water. He looked back and said something that I've never heard before."

"What?" Frank and Hazel said at the same time.

Hazel blushed and cleared her throat. "What did he say?"

"I have no idea what it means, but I know it's Greek," Grover said. "And it was just one word: 'Danaós.' "

* * *

A/N: Intriguing yet? I hope. Please follow, favorite, review, read more, and tell all of the FFers you know. And feel free to search of Danaós (or Danaus)... You may be surprised of what Rick Riordan still doesn't have up his sleeves... Until the twelfth, this is Meg, signing out.


	4. III Reyna

A/N: Oh look! Another chapter! Boy am I getting good at this writing deadline thing. Okay, here it is. απολαμβάνω, Meg.

* * *

III - Reyna

"Octavian, do you ever shut up?"

Reyna sighed. This "senate" meeting was one of the worst yet. The camp was never going to get anything done if all they did was argue.

Their "principia" was the penthouse of an abandoned hotel on a dingy part of the New York/ New Jersey Bright. To their right was a mile- long, mile- wide ditch filled with shrubs and home to possum and raccoon, that filled with bay water during a storm. To their left was a construction site that was working through day and night. Needless to say, most of the houses were vacant for those two reasons, and the campers were blissfully secluded.

Reyna put her head in her hands. If she could just find some peace and quiet, she would be able to make a battle plan that even Octavian couldn't find something wrong with.

Standing up, she hit the table. "Enough! If you have something to say, you must ask permission from your praetor before you speak. Understood?"

Every face in the senate developed a sudden interest in the wood. "Understood," they grumbled.

Reyna took a deep breath. "Alright then. Now, who has something to say-" she paused, "- that will help us with a battle strategy?"

A few hands shot up in the air. Octavian (who Reyna ignored), Dakota, and Gwen, who had returned to the Fifth Cohort after Frank left, and was reinstated as centurion. "Gwen?"

"Well," she started, "we have a map of the camp. If it's correct, then our best areas to attack are at Half-Blood Hill, Zephyros Creek, and through the Long Island we can put a legion of boats in the Sound, we can cut off their chance of a water escape. Their strawberry fields are close to both the Pegasus stables and the Big House. If we can get a hold on their pegasi, we have an air advantage. Zephyros Creek leads through the North Woods, where we can easily hide reinforcements. Following Zephyros Creek, we can get to the cabins and ransack their quarters. On the beach, we can land and set up catapults." She took a deep breath.

Wow. Reyna had never heard Gwen talk that much, ever. She was one of the best strategists that the camp had ever had, though, and everything she said was like an imperial gold.

"Thank you, Gwen," she said. "Our best bet is to ransack their cabins. Nothing enrages anyone more than people touching their personal items. Plus, we know that the campers' will most likely hide weapons in the Amphitheater and in canoes. Also, they will be expecting a night attack. I propose that we attack midday, when they're eating. If we catch their guards off-guard, and the rest of the campers hungry, they'll be tense,and will waste more energy in the beginning of the fight. We have to remember; maim or capture, but under no circumstances will you be permitted to kill."

Reyna's eyes flitted to Octavian. She had half a mind to keep him out of the fight altogether; he was bloodthirsty. But he was also one of the camp's best fighters, and... she hadn't come up with a good excuse to to take him out of the line of fire yet.

She continued. "We didn't loose any of our campers in the Argo II attack, and we will not leave them with any bone to pick. We are almost certain that the Greek Camp is our enemy." Reyna waited for any objections. "We will meet tomorrow, here, at the same time. Thank you; you are all dismissed."

Reyna walked over to Gwen and said, "Please stay behind with Bobby and Dakota and outline what we've discussed on the map. Include areas of concentration defense for the enemy."

Gwen hesitated. "But-"

"Don't worry," Reyna replied. "I'll take your night shift. We need this done tonight. Please." She turned to Octavian. "A word, Octavian."

As the centurions filed out of the penthouse, Reyna stepped to the side. "You didn't announce what the auguries foretold today. If I'm not mistaken, you are the augur."

Octavian smiled. "I'm not sure you'll want to hear them, praetor. The last time something like this was foreseen, we had an... unwanted and unhelpful visitor."

Reyna's eyes flashed. "I didn't ask for you to stall, Octavian." Her hand slide down to the pugio on her belt. "I want an answer. This is important."

He put his hands up in mock defense. "Fine, fine. But don't blame me for being cautious." He sucked in a fake breath. "They read, 'Beware: Fire of the Greek hold what hasn't been seen.'"

Reyna's face turned ashen. "Are you sure?"

"Well, it was either that or: 'Be warned: Do not hold geese over fire of future.'" He grinned. "And I hardly think that's right."

Reyna's blood turned cold as Octavian disappeared down the dark stairwell, and into the night.

**. . . . .**

Reyna sat on the front entrance to the hotel, her gladius propped up beside her. What in the heck was that supposed to mean? 'Beware: Fire of the Greek hold what hasn't been seen?' And why did Octavian seem so happy about it?

No, she didn't need that answered. He probably thought that with once the camp heard about another augury reading of a Greek, people would become and scared and force Reyna to elect another praetor, which no doubt would be him. It was a miracle that he hadn't killed her yet for not following "traditional conduct."

Praetor-ship wouldn't be a problem if the Greeks hadn't attacked. Reyna wasn't even sure that what they did could be qualified as an attack. Either Annabeth Chase could be a Grammy-winning actress, or she had actually trusted Reyna and wanted the best for both of their camps.

But that didn't matter anymore. Reyna had said it herself; this was war.

She yawned and listened to the construction work and traffic in the distance. 75 miles away, she knew the Greek demigods were preparing for battle. And thousands of miles away, Jason, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Piper were frolicking around Greece and Rome, doing... whatever they were trying to do.

Jason. She needed to do some deep thinking about him. Reyna had never felt so angry about anyone ever before. But he hadn't remembered her, and Percy had remembered Annabeth. She had heard him talking about her, and she had seen them. Reyna knew. Percy loved Annabeth, and she loved him, and nothing was going to tear those two apart.

And Jason had Piper, and something about them made her think that Jason loved Piper too, even if they had only been together for a short time. He didn't need Reyna, and he didn't want her. That should have been the end of everything, but Reyna had never felt that way about anyone else, ever.

She wiped her eyes. She couldn't let anyone see her upset like this. She was the praetor, and she had to keep the camp controlled, efficient, and determined. "Armed with lightning" didn't come easily.

Soon, the warm summer air and the drum of noise put Reyna to sleep. But a few hours later, she awoke to footsteps trampling bushes.

"Who's there?" She demanded. "Show yourself!"

"Wait," a light voice spoke from the bushes. "Please, I need help."

Reyna gasped as a tall, freckled girl with hair the color of fire stepped out from the bushes. The red-headed girl was covered in dirt and leaves, and looked like she had been wandering the area for ever.

"I'm a demigod," she said. "You can trust me." And the girl walked through the front door, and collapsed on the staircase.

Reyna barely noticed the all-too-familiar orange t-shirt that the girl wore.

Barely.

* * *

A/N: I'll have a new chapter tomorrow. Please read, review, favorite, follow, and spread the word. I'm really rooting for this story! ;). - Meg.


End file.
